Puzzles: Science Turns to Love
by Swangal
Summary: This story leads up to and includes Alice's change. It is the POV of her changer who I named Harold. It is sad as we all know what happens to Alice's changer death . It is a love lost sort of story. I hope you read and enjoy it!


**AN: This is my first twilight fanfic! I wanted to thank the wonderful Snurtz for helping me in all my fanfiction endevors, she is really and truely a great friend! I hope you all love this! Also I am very sorry for any inaccuracies, I did minimal research on this and I tried to keep it as accurate as possible but I don't know how successful I was, and that may be the reason why some of the story is vague. Thanks for reading! -Swangal**

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Mental diseases had always intrigued me. I had been interested ever since I had seen that raving woman at the hospital near my house being carted off to the insane asylum. I decided then and there to go and get my degree to be a doctor specializing in mental illness. After all I was a vampire; I could decide such things on a whim and decide to go after them. I had to practice for a month before I could be in such a close proximity to humans. I had been on and off human blood for 10 years now. I just loved to live near humans, they were so interesting. I would try to abstain from their blood but if I felt like drinking from a human and I could do it inconspicuously, I would. I had always heard from other nomads that some vampires drank exclusively animal blood I was intrigued by the thought; I decided to try so I could settle down in one place for an extended period of time and stop my continuous tedious roaming.

After I received my degree I worked in a small mental hospital. I and the other doctors there tried many ways to cure the patients. We tried electro-shock therapy, we tried keeping them in the dark, we tried homeopathic remedies, we tried intense environment sterilization, we tried drugs, we tried lobotomy, and we tried insulin shock therapy. The puzzles of the diseases were a thrill to attempt to solve. I plead out of procedures with blood by saying that I fainted when I saw it; I still didn't have the best control. It was fun to experiment with the humans, some of the drugs and homeopathic treatments seemed to work but none of the others seemed to.

I was at the asylum night and day. I decided to be a live in so that I could hide my sleep patterns more effectively, while enabling me to work more hours. I knew most of the patients by name. There was Betsey in room 103 who screamed when people gave her food, thinking we were poisoning her. There was Eric in room 127 who compulsively washed his hands. There Cindy in room 135 who screamed in her sleep but wouldn't talk at all in the day time. But my favorite patient who I grew quite close to was Alice in room 119. Alice was a wonderfully interesting case, she had remarkably accurate premonitions. Day after day I would sit in her darkened room and she and I would talk.

"Did you see anything today Alice?" I would ask.

"Sure Harold," she would state morosely, "I always do." I would laugh and the ghost of a smile would flicker across her face. Our conversations were always peppered with evidence of her foresight. She would catch things that fell before they hit the ground, she would look in the direction of something before it happened, and she would save bugs before they were smashed. When I lay in bed at night I found myself thinking about her, how her dark hair grew a little every day (her head had been shaved when she had been brought in), how her skin was so pale and smooth. I wondered why her family had given her up. I though about if her premonition power would affect her if she was a vampire, like me. I wondered if I could make her happy, her happiness that was just under the surface haunted me. I could tell if given a normal life she would flourish but that would never happen with her premonitions. I found myself growing closer to her everyday.

I spent a year at the hospital until it happened. The thing I had been subconsciously dreading, the thing to separate me from Alice. I was making my rounds one day when I saw them, the other vampires. It had been over a year since I had seen any of my kind and I was intrigued at why they had come here. I greeted them.

"Hello welcome to the Celesta Center for the mentally ill," I said.

"Hello Harold we have been looking for you," said the male, "I am James and this is Victoria."

"Do I know you?" I asked starting to feel nervous.

James responded, "No, but we just visited Atlanta, where you previous lived. Janie sent us to check up on you after we tired of the area."

"Ah," I said with relief. Janie and I had a bit of a fling back in Atlanta, not mates or anything just partners in fighting boredom. It was sweet of her to send someone to check on me. She was a good friend.

"Would you mind showing us around?" James asked, "We have never seen a facility like this one before." I looked into his red eyes speculatively. Were they safe in here? Would they be driven to hunt? I remembered the struggle to control my own blood lust, but they seemed well controlled with the humans drifting in and out of the lobby.

"Alright," I responded. I gave them the standard tour throughout the center. When we passed Alice's room, James visibly stiffened and his eyes narrowed. Victoria looked at James excitedly.

"What just happened," I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," they chorused as their faces snapped back to blank expressions. We said good bye and they left with the promise of visiting the next day. As soon as they left I got called over to the lobby, I had a telephone call.

"Hello," I answered it.

"Harold!" exclaimed Janie's voice, "I wanted to warn you that I sent a couple up to meet you. But to be careful because the male is a hunter." A hunter! She sent up a hunter! Oh no, that explains their reaction to Alice!

"Hello?" questioned Janie, "are you there?"

"Yes," I responded, "They have already gotten here. Why did you send them here Janie? I am set up here! They started a hunt at my work, what am I going to do!"

"Relax Harold; you are always too concerned with your standing in the community! You can always move!" answered Janie.

"I suppose, good bye Janie," I said trying to hide my panic not wanting her to think there was anything else tying me here.

"Good bye Harold, and relax!" she said and the line clicked to an end. That night I waited till everyone was asleep and crept into Alice's room incase James crept back in the night. As I gazed upon her sleeping form I considered how close I had gotten to her. Then it occurred to me, I loved her. I loved her! But what should I do about James? I knew he would never ever stop hunting her. Once a hunt was started it would never stop, that much I knew. All the sudden, I thought of it, the way to save her! I would change her in to a vampire like me! She could move away with me, I would protect her from any accidents with James. Maybe one day we would become mates, partners in our lives. I know I could make her happy; she would grow to love me as I now loved her. I used some chloroform on her so she wouldn't wake when I moved her. I stole out the window. I went to a secluded knoll that I knew near by, where I sometimes came to get away from the asylum. I laid her down and quickly bit at her wrists and throat some how managing to pull away. I saw her start to change.

I sat there for a whole day. It really was an amazing process, her body healing itself slowly becoming even more beautiful, even though her screams tore at my heart. But then I saw motion on the edge of the clearing and James stepped out of the shadows, I quickly stepped in front of Alice, protecting her, confronting him.

"It is too late," I stated, "you can't kill her now, you will never taste her warm blood.

"I realize," growled James, "Maybe I will, kill her anyway. Or maybe…" He ripped off my arm.

I screamed, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" and stared at the gaping hole in my arm with venom mixed with animal blood dripping slowly from it. I realized in horror that he would kill me. There was nothing I could do to stop him; he would have his revenge for stopping his hunt. I looked at Alice as I fell into a painful darkness; I would never see her as a vampire, she would never know I loved her, and she would never love me back.


End file.
